Archives for February, 2007

Last week, in the commentary after taking yet another silly Internet test, one that happened to reveal that the supervillain that I’m best suited to be is Doctor Doom, there were others who also tested as Doctor Doom. In order to separate the real Doom from the Doombots, I asked a few simple questions to…

It figures, it really does, that this would have to be one of the first clinical uses of stem cells that they’d come up with. The really weird thing about this article is its schizophrenic nature. It starts out with a sensationalistic description of the new use of stem cells, and then it describes the…

Like most people, I like making money. True, it’s not the main goal of my life (otherwise I definitely wouldn’t be in academics), but, all in all, it’s better to be comfortably off than to be poor. And, as I’ve said before, although I could make more in private practice, I don’t do too badly…

It’s that time again, when the part of the blogosphere that celebrates critical thinking over the usual credulousness that allows dubious stories to spread far and wide meets to examine those stories and claims with a hard-nosed skepticism. And few skeptics, it would seem, are as tough as the narrator of this edition of the…

I’ve written quite a bit about the role of the theory of evolution in medicine, including how it can be used to better understand disease processes such as cancer and sleeping sickness. I’ve also lamented the woeful state of knowledge about evolution that is possessed by all too many medical students and physicians, most recently…

[Note: There is a followup to this post here.] I’ve been writing a lot about dichloroacetate (DCA) lately, perhaps even to the point of becoming repetitive and risking boring my readers. Fortunately, this post is not primarily about DCA. Unfortunately, it’s about a question that is related to the recent hype over DCA in that…

One year ago today, Orac was assimilated–I mean welcomed–into the ScienceBlogs collective. it’s been a wild ride, a fantastic opportunity to reach more readers than I ever did on my old Blogspot blog. (My traffic has roughly doubled since I joined up.) I didn’t show up with the first crop of ScienceBloggers mainly because of…

Every so often, just for laughs or my own personal edification, periodically I check my referral logs to see who’s linking to me and what posts are being linked to. Most of the time, there’s not much there worth commenting on. Sometimes, it’s bloggers who agree with me; other times, it’s bloggers who were simply…

Just a quick reminder: The Skeptics’ Circle is fast approaching. If you’re a blogger who likes to apply critical thinking and science to dubious claims, get your best skeptical entries over to Akusai at Action Skeptics by Wednesday evening. Then join us all at Action Skeptics on Thursday to partake of the best skeptical blogging…

Yes, I know that my blog buddy Abel wrote a post with almost exactly the same title as this. No, I’m not mindlessly aping him. I’m doing it because of what Abel revealed in his post: That most of his referrals lately have been Google searches looking for information on where to buy dichloroacetate, a.k.a.…

I’ve written about the corrosive effect that religion can have on medical care when it is allowed to become too pervasive. One example where the intersection of religion and medicine concerns me is when various religious doctors insist on very dubious evidence that religiosity is good for a patient’s health and that physicians should therefore…

I have to admit, I don’t quite “get” the whole Aqua Teen Hunger Force thing (I’m either too old or too uncool, I guess), but, as a certified 24 addict, I found this to be a rather amusing take on the terror scare caused by an ill-fated ad campaign in Boston a couple of weeks…

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a bizarre complication of a central venous catheter placement. Now, on YouTube, I find a primer on how to place central venous catheters. The remaining parts can be found here.

This one seems to be going around the ScienceBlogs, bunch, and, given the nature of the test and my having collected comics for over 30 years, there was no way I could pass it up. The results are, of course, utterly expected. Bow before your better! Bow before…Doom! Your results: You are Dr. Doom Dr.…

Apparently I’m not safe, even here. I thought I could escape him. Who am I talking about? Richard Simmons, that’s who, and he’s shown up on ScienceBlogs on the mothership’s official blog. I’m having acid flashbacks.

…that Kristjan Wager started a blog. Kristjan, as some may know, is a frequent commenter here, and has even guest-blogged for me about the Danish studies on two occasions. Head on over and check out Kristjan’s blog, Pro-Science. I’ll be adding it to my sidebar the next time I get a chance to revamp my…

Apparently, while I’ve been at this meeting, Mayo Clinics Proceedings has published this systematic review of the scientific literature on the “efficacy” of homeopathy. Its conclusion: The evidence from rigorous clinical trials of any type of therapeutic or preventive intervention testing homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments is not convincing enough for recommendations in any…

It’s my last day in sunny Phoenix, and all I’ve done thus far is to go to conferences, work on a grant, and do a little blogging, usually late at night because I often have trouble falling asleep in hotel rooms, particularly given that the air conditioning always seems to be such that it’s either…

Here’s more evidence. Yeah, I know it’s old, but Donohue’s popping up again, and I had forgotten what a nutjob he can be. End of rare political rant. You may return to your regularly scheduled medical and science blogging. ADDENDUM: More examples have shown up in my in-box of the “wit” and lack of wisdom…

Well, here I am in sunny Phoenix, having spent pretty much all of yesterday at the conference, sneaking in alterations to and practicing of my talk in between sessions. All in all not a bad day, although I spent the entire day indoors and didn’t get to partake of the bright and cheery warmth, which…

I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn’t have time to serve up a heapin’ helping of that Respectful Insolence™ you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately,…

I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn’t have time to serve up a heapin’ helping of that Respectful Insolence™ you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately,…